Since no one raised any objections to these in the previous thread, I'll post them here for claiming. By design, this is a fairly straightforward line of quests. The characters involved already have established personalities, so feel free to look at their existing dialogue to see how they should be written. I would also be happy to help with any writing.

Background

Little secret - "You can’t take two steps in Karthwasten without walking into a vagabond mercenary. The local Fighters Guild? Nothing but thugs, if you ask me."

For years, the lawlessness plaguing the Reach has weakened the very institutions that hold the empire together. Led by a wastrel of a knight and made up of former bandits and Reachmen raiders, the Karthwasten branch of the Fighters Guild is not only unprofessional, but unscrupulous too. It desperately needs a new recruit to whip it into shape. But even the greatest of heroes might not be able to improve its bad reputation.

Major characters

Geod Entoriane

“What do you need, %Rank? I’ve enough to do already keeping this rabble in order.”

An aged Breton knight, Geod Entoriane once served a petty fiefdom in High Rock that was annexed by a larger kingdom after the Warp in the West. He is in no way the chivalrous knight he wishes people to think he is. A moon sugar addict and a frequent patron of brothels, Geod is comically unfit to lead Karthwasten’s Guild of Fighters. He isn’t happy about the situation, though, and wants to earn back at least a scrap of prestige and dignity.

Jorna Red-Bear

“Don’t talk to me about guild charters and tenets. I only want to kill beasts and bastards. And get paid for it too.”

Jorna is a fighter for the guild and a member of the Bear Clan. At the right disposition, she might be willing to give the guild’s new recruit directions for finding his or her way through the Vorndgad Forest.

Rolic Gilded-Shield

“I am Rolic Gilded-Shield. Once I won fame and fortune on the battlefield. But now I am only a lawful merchant.”

A merchant-prince and veteran of the War of Bend’r-Mahk, Rolic Gilded-Shield lives in a spacious manor outside the city. He’s used his knack for military strategy to dominate the Karthwasten trade routes, recruiting his own mercenaries to protect his caravans. This has only helped diminished the standing of the local Fighters Guild.

Ildos Norvor

“I am Ildos Norvor, the merchant. Not that I’ll be one for much longer. Not while my caravans are plundered time and again by bandits. Damn them all.”

Once a successful merchant, Ildos Norvor has had his caravans plundered by bandits recently. Bitter about his poverty, he blames Rolic Gilded-Shield for trying to run him out of business. He might be right.

Quest One

For the first quest, Geod Entoriane will ask you to deal with a contract from a “bothersome” woman, Haldine, the shipmaster at the Karthwasten docks. When spoken to, Haldine will fume that she hired the guild weeks ago to kill a particularly nasty wormmouth that has been nesting near one of the fords downriver, hassling passing boats and travelers. Kill the beast, hiding in the trees off the road in -104,9, and return to Haldine. She’ll complain some more about how unreliable the guild has been lately, but will thank the player anyway. Back at the guildhall, Geod Entoriane will say he's glad Haldine won't be pestering him anymore about such a trivial job.

Quest Two

Two Orcs bandits are hiding out in the Vorndgad Forest and the Fighters Guild has been hired to track them down (mainly because the guards don’t want to go trudging through the treacherous woods). They are Largnok gro-Dugum and Mucouk gro-Lugos, located in -107,11. When asked for hints for where to find them, Geod Entoriane won’t be very helpful.

“What, you expect me to draw a map to the blighters for you? Do your own legwork, %Rank. Or if you can’t be bothered, ask Jorna Red-Bear. She knows the Vorndgad Forest better than anyone. Honestly, she's not good for much else.”

If the player raises her disposition high enough, Jorna will say she’d expect the Orcs to camp at the base of a mesa, on the western edge of the forest. She’ll suggest looking around Blood Paw Lodge, since there are a number of good hunting trails in that area of the forest. Kill the bandits and return to Geod Entoriane. He’ll comment that the player has gotten more done at the guild than anyone in a long time.

Quest Three

Ildos Norvor, the Dunmer merchant, wants the guild to investigate the disappearance of his latest caravan. When talked to, the grumpy elf will complain that the Fighters Guild is the only group we could afford, and that he might as well have hired a tribe of goblins to aid him. But he’s desperate, and believes the merchant-prince Rolic Gilded-Shield has been using his caravan guards to raid rival merchants.

Investigating the eastern road leading to Vorngyd’s Stand, the player will find a wrecked wagon and a dead body (in the corner of the road in -106,4), along with two brigands. After a fight, the player will find a note on them from Rolic Gilded-Shield, instructing his mercenaries to wait by the bend in the road and rob the Dark Elf’s goods. Bring the note to Ildos Norvor to confirm his suspicions. Now that he knows Rolic Gilded-Shield is after him, he’ll hire the Fighters Guild from now on for protection. Returning to the guild, Geod Entoriane will be delighted by the news.

Quest Four

Pleased with the player’s actions, Geod Entoriane will trust him or her with a personal vendetta that is outside the guild’s official business. Frinad Cantor, an Imperial archer, left the guild to join up with Rolic Gilded-Shields mercenaries. Geod wants him dead, to make an example of a turncoat and send Rolic a message that the Fighters Guild won’t be pushed around.

If spoken to in the Gilded-Shield barracks, a fearful Frinad will explain he was forced by poverty to join up with Rolic, but that he isn’t happy with the situation. He’ll beg the player to talk to Rolic on his behalf so that he can leave and escape the guild. Rolic will be amused by Geod Entoriane’s unscrupulous plot, and will agree to relieve Frinad from his service, saying the Imperial isn’t worth a damn anyway. When told of this, Frinad will be overjoyed, and will give the player a pilfered key to a locked chest at the Fighters Guild with some modest loot inside. He’ll disappear once the player leaves the cell.

If the player doesn’t kill Frinad, Geod will be furious that the Imperial got away, but he won’t suspect the player let him go. He will refuse to give any payment for the job, though.

Quests 2 and 3 now have dialogue written for the various outcomes. Quest 3 in particular has a lot of different dialogues depending on whom you talk to and kill out of the 2 rival merchants involved in the quest.

<roerich> woah it's hot in here
<Lord Berandas> it must be Summer.
<Infragris> #hell is meant as a spam and off topic channel. Doing a great job already

Excellent work, Luxray! IMO you really captured Geod's personality and the envisioned feel of the KW Fighters Guild. I enjoyed 1) how the information was spread out over the dialogue and journal rather than being compacted into one or the other and 2) the number of possible endings.

I've made the following changes and attached the updated claim esp, but more testers would be great:

CONTENT
- Small edit to Jorna's dialogue to make the need for bribery more apparent
- Changed Frinad's dialogue results line "I'll ask Rolic to help you flee instead of killing you." from being designated choice 5 to choice 4 to fix the journal not updating
- Changed Rolic's dialogue conditions for his entry in "an unrelated matter" so that it disappears after updating journal
- Minor punctuation/spelling fixes

DIALOGUE
- Added SHOTN and KW placeholders for "Orders" topic and cleaned dirty entries
- Added SHOTN placeholder for "make amends" topic and added new entries (Expulsion is treated exactly like that of the vanilla FG, but with a new global Sky_Glb_ExpFightersGuild)
- Cleaned dirty entries on either side of new entries in "latest rumors" topic
- Moved the two Greeting 7 entries to Greeting 5 for consistency

SCRIPTS
- Added check to both KWFG03 Bandit scripts to only give the "bandits are dead, look for evidence" update (journal state 20) if the player didn't already loot bandit3
- Added check to both KWFG03 Bandit scripts to remove possible Dunmer spells
- Moved GetDistance block from each of the Bandit scripts to the KWFG03 Caravan script and limited it with a timer
- Added missing "state" variable declaration in sky_qRe_KWFG04_sc_chest
- Changed variables in Sky_qRe_KWFG03_sc_Loot (daysPassed is the name of a vanilla global)

Fun and challenging, I enjoyed the difficulty here but I hope Markarth Side's Fighter's Guild questline will be more low level-friendly, with these my level 1 Nord often had to sethealth 0 on my target. Other than that I had a blast. Now on to the not so fun part.

-"Join Karthwasten Fighter's Guild" topic should just be "Join Fighter's Guild" personally, I know we don't want to clog vanilla topics but it really would feel weird if we'd have to make a new Join topic for every location with an Imperial Guild, both for the player and for us modders.

Issues with Quest 1-3:

None

Issues with Quest 4:

-Geod should definitely give directions to Rolic's Manor either will giving the quest or as a side topic (Rolic whatshisface already has a topic so you can just put the directions in there). The manor is simply too out of the way for it not to have any.

-Upon completing the murder-happy quest ending, the Journal doesn't close out. Should be a simple fix as well.

Not an official reviewer but once these are fixed I'd say this is Ready to Merge